Ski Touring Mount Clarke in the Reese Valley

I quickly realized that my time in NZ was running out with less that two weeks so I was fortunate to meet up with my friend Manu. We decided to do a predawn mission up the Reese Valley, ski touring Mount Clarke.

We are heading towards those snow covered peaks
Pre Dawn Lightshow
I hate river crossings
By now I could use some sunshine

About 6kms up valley and a few crossings of the river we got to the base of our climb and started heading up an area referred to as Clarkes Slip, this is when the views started coming out.

Heading up Clarke's slip
Well Hello Earnslaw

After a tad bit of a sketchy climb and a tad bit of Tussock bashing we were in the high alpine and trying to climb Clarke before the bad weather arrived.

Looks like the weather is about to crap itself
Okay it looks pretty rad up here

We were heading for a peak behind the prominent rocky one.

Looking at our route towards Mt. Clark
Manu skinning up with Earnslaw in the background
Manu skinning with Lake Wakitipu in the distance

From the summit of Clarke I got my first view of the Reese and Dart valleys and the endless potential of the area. It’s rugged and it’s wild and I like what I see.

Looking into the Reese Valley
The Dart Valley
Bad clouds on the horizion and Mt. Aspiring

After the views from the summit we raced down as fast as possible knowing it was going to rain hard soon. While I did film the descent I didn’t get any pictures until we made it to the spicy descent down Clarke’s slip.

We went up this?

and then we were crossing the river and back out of the Reese Valley and back into Glenarchy. It was a great day ski touring Mount Clark in the Reese Valley

Heading down the Reese

While hanging out at the DOC station I found out that I am from a pretty rad area and that I had a bunch of epic riding to get back to. But I had one final week in NZ.

Washington sounds pretty rad!!

Thank you for reading and If you enjoyed reading this and want to see more ski tours within New Zealand check out this link

Options for Other Ski Tours Tours Abroad

Japan Powder Pilgrimage

Ski Tours in Northern Norway

Exploring the Khibney Mountains of Russia

And Other Tours Abroad